22 Dreams

Album: 22 Dreams (2008)
Charted: 59
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Songfacts®:

  • English retro blues rock band Little Barrie back Weller on this track. Said Weller: "Little Barrie and his band came down to the studio and played on this one. It's a rocking tune. I like the idea of collaborating with new people. If you listen to the lyric there's an explanation as to why there's only 21 tracks on the album. I need to keep one for myself!"
  • Paul Weller told Mojo magazine March 2008 about the album: "I wanted to do something different. I felt I'd gone as far as I could with my band, I needed to instigate a change to become inspired. There were no fallings-out but I stripped it down to a nucleus of just me and (guitarist) Steve Cradock. It's really worked. I started it last spring and it follows the passing of one year into the next, going through the seasons."
  • Mojo magazine June 2008 asked Weller about the album title: He replied: "It's not anything, really. It was going to be the title of the live album (Catch-Flame). People think it's a football reference but it's not that either."
  • The album was produced by Simon Dine who also collaborated with Weller on his 2002 Illumination album (including the UK Top 10 single "Written in the Stars"). Dine also co-wrote several of the tracks. Weller spoke to Uncut magazine about their collaboration: "He's an old mate, we've known each other for a long time and we've done some stuff together in the past, but I've never co-written with him. On this album there's about five or six tracks co-writes with Simon. Most of the things we did together involved him using a backing track - a drone or a drum loop or a sample - and I'd lay down some melodies and lyrics over the top. Then he'd take it back and cut it up, and then I'd adjust it, and then he'd do something else. I think that threw a few things up in the air. And then there were other tracks that were almost totally improvised. So it was just a different way of writing. It's not like two people in a room with acoustic guitars trying to write a song together."

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